Marchus checked over their supplies while Nauxha looked around, searching for the best way forward.  Sunlight streamed from the bunker entrance, finally open wide, but the light ahead of them was tinted oddly blue.  The Xunari of Wayward Station had not dedicated much time to the mystery of the bunkers, being too busy repairing wind damage to the colony’s main structure, but with the bunkers open and the repairs mostly complete, many colonists were too curious to hold back any longer.  Marchus was the first to make the journey to the forboding underground entrance.

There, he had met Nauxha, from Zagreus-15, also preparing for an expedition into the unknown.  They had decided that a party of two would be safer than one, especially with Gregg warning of danger deep within.  With their supplies pooled, it was Marchus’ job to ensure the packs were evenly distributed.  He heaved his onto his back- enough food for three days, sample jars, a knife, and spear- and held out Nauxha’s pack as she approached.  She took it and nodded thanks without speaking.  The blue tsab’s dry nature did not upset Marchus.  He appreciated someone who only talked when necessary.

Nauxha led the way onto the path she had scouted, and the two were quickly surrounded by thick green leaves and the sound of insects buzzing just out of sight.  Something skittered past, leaf litter tumbling down a small hill in its wake.  Marchus turned his head sharply, but the creature did not seem to be coming toward them.  “Keep an eye out for traps,” he murmured, not wanting to draw attention by speaking too loudly.

Nauxha looked back at him, eyebrow raised.  “Traps?” she asked, equally quiet.

“Gregg said that some of her kin, or the previous inhabitants, may have placed traps.  Just watch out for, I don’t know, tripwires or pressure plates or something,” Marchus replied.

“I’m more worried about the wildlife.  While scouting, I saw something that looked like a fly, but a hundred times bigger,” Nauxha said with a snort.  “I don’t want that thing trying to bite me.”  Marchus shuddered at the description.  Traps paled in comparison to giant bugs.

A few hours passed as the two continued deeper into the bunker, though the hot, humid air made them burn through their water supplies faster than expected.  Marchus found it hard to believe they were underground.  Other than being able to see the ceiling at times, it felt exactly like being in a jungle.  He wondered who had built this place, and why.

Just ahead, Nauxha waded into a shallow stream.  It was barely past ankle deep, but her claws slipped in the algae growing on the rocky bottom.  Halfway across, she paused, her attention caught by something upstream.  Marchus walked up beside her, trying to see what she’d seen.  “I saw movement,” she said, voice low.  “Something big.”

Marchus squinted.  Other than the swaying of leaves in the breeze that somehow moved through this place, he could see nothing out of the ordinary.  Then- movement.  A branch, arching across the stream, moved a leg from one side to the other.  A leg?  As he watched, another spindly, many-jointed leg swung across.  The body it was connected to looked exactly like a thick branch, knobbly and whorled, but when he looked closer, he could make out antennae, two darker-colored eyes.

It was a giant stick insect, twice as tall as a tsabhua.

Marchus gasped, and Nauxha shushed him.  She motioned back the way they had come, and the two turned around and moved as quietly as they could toward the near bank of the stream, in the opposite direction the stick insect was walking.  He was pretty sure they ate plants, but neither of them wanted to find out.

Splashing out of the water- and wincing at the noise- the tsabhua stopped and took a moment to just stare back at the huge bug, now nearly invisible again amongst the jungle as it finished crossing, its long hind end slowly vanishing into the real branches.  Marchus let out a tense breath, and Nauxha shook her head.  “That thing was big,” she muttered.

“It was, and it was going the same direction we were.  Maybe we should try to return to the entrance before nightfall, if night actually falls around here.  Predators like to hunt in the dark,” Marchus suggested.

Nauxha looked over her shoulder at where the stick insect had disappeared, considering his words.  Eventually, she sighed.  “I had hoped to stay out longer, but you might be right.  We’d need more than a spear if something like that attacked us.  Let’s go,” she replied.

The two tsabhua turned, making their way back the way they had come.  The bunker had driven them off for now, but next time they would be more prepared.